Bad taste maybe but a common theme this week …..

All the news here is about the swine flu – which so far we have managed to avoid – I am scrubbing Ash’s hands constantly – poor angel. We managed to be late on Saturday night and we missed the baseball game we were trying to get to but in hindsight maybe a good thing as they are saying to avoid crowds. That said, I hope I am not speaking too soon. Mike has had another bad night and is very achey and painy – we will keep an eye on it but we will need to cancel todays Proj Walk session – they don’t seem to be too busy at the moment so hopefully we can get him there tomorrow for a make-up session instead. I am hoping he is just tired and has just a minor infection of some sort that we can fight off. Will keep you posted if anything changes.

Also on the pig front, Ash’s new favourite thing seems to be pigs – despite the train noise we are liking Oceanside a lot and Ash has found a little balloon man who is happy to make her pigs – which she insists on calling oinky and taking to bed — I am just waiting for the boom in the middle of the night. She is also in love with the pigs at one of the shows at SeaWorld (that she dragged us to again on Saturday). She even made a pig candle the other day — very strange, hopefully she is getting in good with the pig gods so that we can escape the ‘epidemic’ as they are labelling it over here.

And on to other things pig – I realised how remiss I had been to not include the latest update in “Mon’s Exercise Regime” – a part of the posts I am sure you are all desperate for! Well since I last included an update i had decided that I must have some kind of disease that causes weight gain ….. you know the ones that include in the symptoms ‘unexpected weight gain’ and then I thought that your average GP would not necessarily agree that 9 months of at best 1 hours exercise a week followed by 6 weeks of zero exercise, lots of peanut butter m&m’s, Easter and plenty of ‘supersize soda’s’ would consistitute ‘unexpected’! I decided to turn over a new leaf and we organised for Mike’s carer to come in 30 mins early 3 nights a week and help Mike out with Ash so that I could go for a walk – very nice to have some time by myself if nothing else! I did that 3 nights in the week 2 weeks ago and felt so great for the fresh air that I decided that if Ash wasn’t up when the morning carer arrived that I would go for a jog along the foreshore. Please note (important disclaimer): I use the word ‘jog’ very loosely! I managed that a couple of mornings in a row last week but thankfully I then hurt my knee carrying the groceries up the stairs so that has put an end to that stupid caper and let’s face it – who can get organised to go for a walk at 6:30 at night! That said, I do wish I had my bike over here …. for a number of reasons. Firstly, it seems very safe – every major and semi-major road has a big, wide bike lane and they are all no-parking (for the bike lane). It is brilliant. Secondly, there is some pretty scenery and some nice rolling hills that would possibly be fun to climb. Third, if I some exercise I would happily enjoy sampling a bit more of the food over here – actually, it has a very mexican influence and is mostly pretty good. Finally, they ride SO slowly over here for the most part that I might even look good! Mind you, we are not exactly out and about watching the packs at 6am so maybe the folks that head out later are just a bit more relaxed! Although, there is one disturbing thing about riding here – helmets are not compulsory – it is mind-boggling to see people riding along a road with a 55mph speed limit without a helmet – can’t even imagine it. Most of the more serious riders do seem to wear them and the 2 kids that we have seen out doing some exercise (ouch, that was nasty) have both had helmets on too so maybe that will change.

Anyway, best get back to the 10 flavours of ice-cream with whatever toppings you like – will keep you posted on Mike’s progress, particularly if he turns out to be really unwell. Keep safe.

 

Sorry again folks, a long time between posts ……. a few technical issues getting ourselves setup in the new condo — it does have high-speed internet as promised, however, it doesn’t have the modem that you need or the setup details to actually use it!!! Anyway, after a few days of floundering around with that we finally found somewhere that would sell us a wireless card and after a few goes we even got it working!

And since then we have been busy, busy, busy. Mike is flat out at Project Walk 4 days a week and pretty exhausted once he is done there. Ash and I have been busy exploring Oceanside (where we have moved to). It is a fantastic spot except for one small (or very large and heavy) detail — the fact that we are about 20m away from the main Amtrack train line …. i don’t think I have slept for more than 2 hours at a stretch since we got here — the 4:30am service is a our personal favourite – you could used to the sound of the trains but the noise level of the horns that they seem to constantly toot is something else again — I swear the walls shake! Anyway, we are here and there is lots more space and Ash is very happy having a bit of room to move around. Her only complaint is that there is no pool! There is a massive ocean out the front but in her defence it is freezing and not exactly beautiful but we did have a pod of dolphins playing out the front the other morning so definitely a very peaceful spot – well, between trains it is anyway.

Speaking of things sea-like we have managed to drag Mike along to a bit of sight-seeing since my last post … we have been to San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Balboa Park and Old Town. Old Town is my favourite but I need to get Ash eating mexican food (or take a packed dinner for her so we can enjoy a restaurant or two. I can safely say that Ash’s favourite outing so far has been seaworld – although I am not so sure that the Killer Whale will be as fond of her ….. we had been there all day, seen all the shows and were pretty tired when Ash decided that she wanted to see the killer whale show again….. (it is called Shamu – Believe). Anyway, Ash says, no mummy I don’t want to go home yet (mind, she is in her stroller by this stage, with it tipped back and 3/4 asleep and Mike is nearly out in his chair) “I want to see the black and whites again”, when I asked what she meant she said, you know that one with the black and whites and they do swimming, you know, the one called shampoo! Mike and I burst out laughing and decided we had to take her to just one more “shampoo” show. Too cute!

Other than that, lots of time at the playground at the beach (it has the advantage over fun parks of being free!!).  Also, there is another little girl whose dad is at Project Walk on Tuesday and Thursday so I am taking them to the park and for little play dates – was nice to see Ash playing with kids!! I think she is sick of hanging out with mum and dad! Also, she seems to have turned over a new leaf and is keen to try lots more things and is much more confident – maybe my mum was right all along, I should have just bored her to tears so that when we went somewhere half fun she would clamour to have a go. Anyway, she is trying lots of new things and is happy to give most things a try – going on rides by herself and even different foods!! (will wonders never cease!). She went for a ride on “Cowboy” a little pony at the local market last night. Except for the trains, we are enjoying where we are and having a good time.

But just to finish off, had an embarassing little effort late yesterday, bringing Mike home from Project Walk, I decided to drive him down to the harbour so he could see it … he is usually too tired to get out and about much so hadn’t been exploring much. Anyway, I took a wrong turn (easy to do on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road!) and ended up at the army base at Camp Pendleton — oopla! Arriving at the gate with two armed troopers I did a hasty explanation about how I had managed to go the wrong way but was really trying to get to the harbour … they were remarkably good humoured about it – clearly had me pegged as a complete airhead (which I decided was fantastic as they didn’t seem inclined to arrest me!) - embarassingly, they stopped 8 lanes of traffic (at the top of their lungs) so that I could do a u-turn  …. how embarassing! Anyway, gave them a wave and we were back on our way – phew! Needless to say, Mike enjoyed the harbour!

Take care and look forward to seeing you all soon. Video has been taken and has been downloaded (or uploaded) on to you-tube … a couple of links below. More to come soon …

Sit Ups

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=assbZnzRelo

Squats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q2_bg93sxo
 

Firstly I want to apologise for not posting before now but it has taken some time to get setup with an internet connection on my computer with the specialist software to enable voice recognition. We are still not quite there as Moni is actually typing for me. We have it all working but it always takes time to setup my working station and I wanted to get a post out so here goes …….

We are now 2 weeks in to Project Walk and the progress is steady. This is exactly what you would expect in an exercise-based program. It is very rewarding to put in the effort and see improvements each day.  I have been very impressed with how methodical the approach of the physical trainers is to help me improve. The exercises are aimed at improving what is weak and re-enforcing what works. My left leg for instance is weaker than my right so we have spent a lot of time improving its strength and also in my confidence to rely on the left leg. By the end of the second week I am now able to support my weight thru the left side and take a step with my right . This is all still supported of course as my balance is terrible! This is to be expected as I cannot feel my legs and have no idea where they are … and they certainly don’t react quickly enough if I am about to fall!

We have just started the third week and if we are looking for milestones I managed to do 22 situps today with the physical trainer only holding my legs down. I can remember early on when my abs first started working and I was told that I might get 20% of my abdominal strength back my reply was “I should be able to do 50 situps then”. My reason for this was simple, before the accident I could 250. Only 28 to go!!

In each 3 hour session i usually do about an hour of stretching and mobility and simple strength work or both the legs and arms. This hour is very structured and directed at improving the areas that need it and releasing spasm in areas that i need to help me. It really is about the trainers helping me to do exercise that you would otherwise do on your own …… with one of the key things for me being that they don’t ignore things that ‘don’t work’.  The middle hour really is about smashing my legs – we do a lot of assisted walking, squats and work on my balance. I am very proud of a session I did last week where I was balancing on a half-ball and transferring weight from side to side. I was of course strapped by my hands on to a bar so I didn’t fall!! The final hour of each session is generally devoted to my shoulders and arms. They are very troublesome and I know that unless I pay them some attention I will have nothing to support me when I go to fall over!

Aside from Project Walk, where I ensure i approach each session with energy, we have managed to fit in plenty of family time. This has been wonderful particularly for me as I have missed my girls over the last 9 months. So far we have been to legoland, San Diego Zoo and Sea World. Sea World for me has been the highlight and i think little Ashley would agree. She absolutely loved the killer whale show and I don’t blame her as I also thought it was terrific. I have also been to the beach on a special beach wheelchair that the lifeguard station had available. It was somewhat depressing to be on the beach but not on the sand or in the water but you cannot escape the tranquility that a beach has to offer and it was lovely to be amongst it, particularly as Ashley was playing in the sand right next to me.

 

Lots in this update so I will try to keep it succinct …. and due to popular demand, this post will include the first edition of Mon’s Exercise, ha, ha, ha!

We’ll start with Wednesday – Ash had a great day at Legoland – probably the biggest rip-off amusement park I have ever seen but in terms of age appropriate activities and rides for her it was unbeatable! Mike did really well too and made them follow their disability act over here …. he got them to stop a couple of rides and help him on and I love his attitude “I am not going to stop trying to do things just because it takes me longer – other people can wait …. 90% of them would think it is awesome that I am trying to do stuff with my daughter and the other 10% can just complain”. Anyway, most importantly Ash had a fantastic time – she got to drive a legoland car (video to be attached just as soon as i can work out how!) and she loved some of the rides – I have told Mike that he owes me big time as I had to go on every ride with her and chase her around the playground while he was napping in his chair! I had to laugh when we came down the slide and he was fast asleep – poor thing, most of the guys at Project Walk have their rest day to rest – we nearly killed him on his rest day, we were up early and at Legoland as it opened. Probably one of the best family days we have had in a very, very long time. When asked what her favourite part of the day was, Ash’s considered response was “all of it”.

Yesterday Ash and I stayed at Project walk for Mike’s session and it was amazing – they get thru so much in the 3 hours. And I am really happy with the amount of time …. originally with mike’s level of injury they had suggested 2 hours 3 times a week but we figured that we were over here and should try for a bit more – after picking him up the first couple of days with him absolutely exhausted and barely able to sit in the chair to get home I worried we had ‘gone too hard’ but having seen the whole session yesterday I am happy – at 2 hours Mike is still fresh and ready to work it is only really the last half hour that is mind over matter. Anyway, the exercises are amazing and there are always people around to help out. They had mike doing some squats yesterday against a wall and I was embarrassed to confess that even as I gave him a hard time to do more I was thinking that I probably would have konked out already! They also managed to get him in to a couple of great stretches which must have felt amazing – he did his first hip-flexor stretch since the morning of the accident … OK it took 3 people to help but he did it! And in other VERY exciting news, Mike  has progressed to actually having some weight on his broom-stick weights bar – they put 2 * 1lb ankle weights on the bar and he could actually lift it up. Also – he made his trainer sweat …. she was joking that if he made her have a workout he got a discount and before the half hour was up she sure was sweating! It was good to see and very funny – again, I think they are enjoying working with Mike.

We move to the condo on Easter Sunday morning our time and will be able to set up Mike’s computer so he can do his own post. We can’t wait to have a little more space and somewhere for Ash to sleep. Also I am hoping that this gives me a bit of a chance to have a break every couple of days. I am hoping that the carers will hang around a bit more and maybe even be able to take Mike and Ash out a little bit some mornings

And now, the much anticipated Mon’s Exercise segment ……. (drum roll please……….)
Well, Michelle, rest assured you will be doing better than me! I have been giving my right bicep a massive (and very consistent) workout with a fairly constant stream of peanut butter m&m’s making their way from the packet to my mouth. Also on the strenuous exercise front, i do at least 2 laps of the hotel room each morning and night and that is a good 4 metres each way! I also do quite a lot of walking to the car (maybe 2m from the hotel room door) and there is plenty of glut work as I sit on my butt driving around each day. Oh, and I have walked the whole 2 blocks to the shops twice this week (and back!!!). I was thinking how considerate cars are of pedestrians (given that there are no footpaths in the shopping centre, you just have to walk in on the road) but then I realised I was the ONLY pedestrian and probably they either saw me as a novelty or were worried I had some sort of brain injury. My only other exercise to date has consisted of rolling over when I fell asleep at the park with Ash and when Ash drags me to the pool and I run from the pool to the spa to try to warm up (this is about a 2.5m dash!). So all in all, I am settling in well, eating crap and doing no exercise ….. oopla, not true, i just realised that I also turn over the waffle machine each morning when I make my waffle for breakfast so there you have it – I am bound to burn off more calories than I get from eating a maple syrup covered waffle!! Surely!! Seriously though … how do they do it – I am trying to work my way up to it but my best effort so far has been just over half a waffle when I was absolutely starving! Some kids over here have a couple for breakfast each day! I digress but I had to laugh the other day when I lady came in and fed her two kids “captain crunch” cereal (yep, it is as sweet as it sounds) and then a waffle covered in butter and maple syrup only to finish up with “now eat up boys, we are going to try to have no junk food on this trip so eat up your breakfast” …. oh my lord!

Speaking of no junk – have a great Easter!

Met with the founder of PW today – a very interesting and inspirational man. I really like the way he thinks – keep it simple! We had a very interesting discussion about occupational medicine and giving people hope. He talked about the grief that he cops for the work that he does which is staggering b/c from what I can see it makes sense. It isn’t a cure, it is just plain and simple hard work. Anyway, it was a fascinating hour and was great to meet some of the other people at PW.

Another amazing session – I got there to see Mike as exhausted as i have ever seen him – truly, after the ironman in Port Mac he looked stuffed but I happily handed over Ash and told him he had had his time …. now it was my turn! but no-way could I do that today ….. as we loaded him in to the car he had a couple of quotable quotes: “that is the hardest training session I have ever done” …. now to any of you who have trained with Mike that is a seriously big call – but I believe him there was not even an ounce of energy left (please note; my use of ounce, not gram!!!). He was so exhausted we couldn’t even manage a 5pm dinner – straight home to bed.

Next thing out of his mouth was “Well, I have done what I promised myself I wouldn’t do – absolutely smashed myself on the first 2 days!”. Poor thing, I almost feel bad dragging him to legoland all day today! Most of the others here are really young or a lot older without family here so when they get a rest day they actually get to rest but due to being sick when we arrived we haven’t really done much fun stuff with Ash so really want to do that today.

I have got some video of him doing some of the exercises at PW and we will have a bash at getting them uploaded later today. It is amazing how hard they are prepared to work these guys and the enthusiasm they put in to their work – it is so refreshing to be around a truly positive attitude. I think they are enjoying Mike … well, they are certainly enjoying hurting him! I have been taking Ash off to the park or for a swim (or today – to the Disney shop) while Mike is doing his sessions as I figure that she has had enough time sitting around hospitals and gyms in the last 9 months to cure her for life! It is really nice to be able to do that with her knowing that Mike doesn’t need any extra encouragement to work hard. I get a full run-down of the session but can’t wait to actually see one all the way thru. Already seeing some results with Mike’s shoulders in agony but certainly much more relaxed than they were when we left. This in turn has his fingers and hands much less tightly bound which he is enjoying (when he stops whincing in pain from the hard work on his shoulders!). Also on the results front, Mike felt the carpet as he sat on it today for the first time in 9 months. He still has no proper feeling but says he can differentiate the feel of the carpet to his chair on his butt and the back of one leg. Still nothing in his arms or hands but pretty cool that he is getting some return of sensation – something that at 9 months post injury is supposedly in that bucket called “impossible”.

Speaking of hard work – Ash has been hard at work writing letters to her friends but so far we have not managed to get to a UPS while they were open – we will try again today. It has been very cute – she is struggling to understand how long we will be away for and why her friends can’t just pop over for a play … but mummy they can just come on the plane! She has spent hours on her letters, choosing stickers for each friend that ”they will love because it is their favourite”. We might even find some postcards at Legoland – I am hoping there are some cool lego displays, not just rides, we shall see.

Also today we pick up the keys to the condo that we move in to on Easter Sunday – can’t wait. The hotel has been fantastic but my goodness, by the time you throw a hoist, a manual, an electric and a power-chair in to the room there isn’t much space for us. Once there we can set up the computer for Mike to use so he can do his own post of the sessions that he is doing.
Thursday also promises to be a busy day – first up we are going to try to get these chairs sorted once and for all and then we have booked Mike in to see the acupuncture guy at PW, so that will be a really interesting hour before he starts his next smash fest!

Finally, after much anticipation Mike got thru his first session at Project Walk today…… more than what we had hoped for!

Since we arrived we have both been sick – poor little Ash has been playing doctors and nurses for real!! Finally got some sun happening yesterday which was very pleasant and I think I have finally shaken off jet-lag this morning, thank goodness! We are also finding our way around a bit better now and seem to have sorted out Mike’s chair disaster – as per the earlier post, the manual chair has been nicely bent out of shape and the electric chair that was delivered can probably best be described as a bucket of ….. We seem to have found a bit of a hybrid which we are hoping is more comfortable than either of them – our tiny little hotel room has been over-run with wheels. This should give us a chance to get out with Ash and see some of the sights in a chair Mike can stay in for more than 3 hours!

But enough of our “opportunities” – here is what you really want to hear about -
What an amazing place Project Walk is …… the attitude of the staff, the attitude of the other SCI patients – it is all about CAN and how to. I think Mike’s trainer looked at the Ironman cap Mike had on and thought to himself – we’ve got a ripper here.  Since the session Mike has alternated between extreme excitement and being really angry at the “waste of time the last 9 months have been”.  He wants to work out a way to pay for every physio at Royal Talbot (and most of the other staff too) to come across and see at least one session to see what people are capable of.

To give an idea of how much he gets thru in the 3 hour session here is a list of what he got thru today in the 2 hours after the 1 hour assessment — Rolling over front and back, assisted sit-ups, assisted bench press (of a broom stick!), standing, walking and leg weights – not bad for a lad laid pretty low with the flu. When I got back, Mike was sweating and breathing hard which was pretty cool to see after 9 months of being told to lie or sit still and take drugs! When he was absolutely stuffed, the trainer got him to do one more and made sure he did it properly – it was brilliant – Mike thinks he has never had a coach so tough.

It was brilliant – when I picked him up he wanted to go straight to dinner (at 5pm), drink 2 massive drinks and then home to bed! Apparently they had barely let him rest long enough between exercises to have a sip of  water.

In another exciting change from the work at home …. they started his session early and finished it 15 mins late – they seem guenuinely excited about working with him and where he can get to. Looking forward to tomorrow already — oh yeah, and they are taking sessions on Good Friday too b/c they ‘might as well work with their clients who are around’. I’m hoping that when Mike is well again, he will be OK to easily knock over the 3 hours and can look at picking up extra time with these experts.

So – a huge thankyou – to everyone who has helped us get here – honestly, if we get nothing more out of the trip – today was worth it!